Zen Cart: Automating Shipping & Notifications

[dogmom327]

Any Zen Cart users out there who've figured out how to easily send shipping info to an online postal site and then easily/automatically send out professional shipping notifications?

We are growing quickly and I'm trying to streamline our processes. Right now printing shipping labels (including paying for shipping since we ship USPS Priority Mail) and sending out notification e-mails with tracking info is taking an insane amount of my time. If I could possibly automate this process...I'd even be willing to pay for some third party website/service as long as it's Zen Cart compatible.

I don't want to use USPS shipping notification e-mails because I want the shipping notification to come from us.

[CawMama]

We don't use Zencart, but are having the same issue right now. I'll be switching, at some point, to Cubecart. From what I understand, they provide this service.

[Quirky]

I use paypal multi-order shipping, and have a bunch of presets set up. I use a Brother thermal printer for labels. It doesn't take care of the notification part but it's no additional cost with my paypal payments subscription, and it's pretty easy for me to forward tracking links to customers. Paypal gets all the addresses and stuff when the payments are processed (either PP or credit card) so no additional steps are needed to enter the addresses.

[dogmom327]

Thank you both! We found a plug in for Zen Cart to at least take out the step of entering shipping info and I'm trying to work out something with Outlook and Excel to automate shipping notifications. Ultimately though I think this is a big sign that we may be outgrowing Zen Cart. I didn't expect it to happen so soon and frankly the thought of switching shopping carts again (we started with Lite Commerce) makes me ill. It's just so much blasted work. Also, if we are going to switch shopping carts, I need to find a professional to completely redo my site (and pay for it). Ugh.